The learning curve...

To salute. Sounds simple enough, right? Well,that is what I thought also but somewhere along the way I have found many ways to flub it up.

In officer training they correct our incorrect salutes and some actually provide some minor instruction on the proper way one should salute. So you practice and have other priors let you know when you have it right or wrong. Then you see the instructors do it different and lets not even get into how the TIs salute - no one ever explains that one!!

So, after a week or so you think you can handle a basic salute then comes doing it on your own while walking. You also couple this with the greeting of the day. Here is where I manage to take a simple task and put way too much into it. I think I can salute - even though i always think I am doing it wrong and use it while offering the greeting. In COT it was always good morning, good afternoon or good evening. I messed these up on a daily basis. If someone saluted me and said good afternoon I would reply good evening- I don't know why!! Or better yet I would say good morning at 1400.

Still to this day I get it all wrong, but now I am in the "real" world and they throw other things at you. "How you doing sir?" I heard this one a few days ago and I saluted and shot back "good Morning" and it was 1300. Less than 50 yards later another enlisted saluted and said, "Hello" so I returned the salute and replied, "Good Morning". why am I doing this!!!???

The rest of the way to my car I am chastising myself and so angry that I cannot get a handle on a simple little task. I am spending way too much time on a simple task that i will be repeating a million times over, but each day that is my one goal - to get it right!!

The other salute comes when driving through the gate. Usually an enlisted is manning the gate and when they review your ID they come to attention and render the salute. Now you must return the salute while sitting behind the wheel of a car! We never covered this in COT. However, i think I have a basic handle on this, but my problem comes with the reply. Usually, the guard will say have a good day sir or thank you sir or something along that line. was returning thank you sir or you too sir.

I was doing this until I had a friend ride along with me on base. A former enlisted Army person who acted like I just flipped off the guard by calling him sir. He told me you never call an enlisted sir. Well who knew!!! i am southern and we call everyone sir and mam as a means of respect and now I am not to respect those with lower rank?? Oh well, add that to the list of things I still have to learn.